A tradition of food, music, and bidding on hundreds of holiday decorations will continue at the Union City's WinterFest this weekend. This will be the city's fifth annual WinterFest fundraising event including a live and silent auction to benefit numerous local nonprofit organizations, such as Centro de Servicios, the Scouts, the Lions Club, youth organizations, Special Olympics, and many more groups.

A new addition this year is a gingerbread house contest open to professional bakers. Finishing touches on these savory houses will be completed during the morning of Saturday, December 3rd at the Ruggieri Senior Center and judged that afternoon between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. The winning entry will receive a prize of $500; second place $300 and third place $200. Gingerbread house entries must be constructed entirely of edible materials and each will be auctioned at evening WinterFest activities. Gingerbread house contest proceeds will support Special Olympics and Our Kids Scholarship Fund. The pubic is invited to stop by and watch chefs put the finishing touches on their gingerbread creations from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. and observe the final judging.

Tickets to the evening's event, beginning at 7 p.m., are available for $10 per person from Jill Stavosky (510) 675-5265 jills@unioncity.org or Lynne Mattos (510) 471-6248 antikdlr@pacbell.net.